Flossing the Teeth While Having Braces
With braces on, you may find it easier not to floss your teeth. But the matter of fact is that the nooks and crannies of braces make it easier for the oral bacteria to find breeding grounds. Thus, you will need to work up your oral hygiene routine rather than cutting it down.
You may wonder about the challenges in flossing your teeth with mouthful of braces. Well, it’s not impossible. You might find it difficult for a few days but you will be able to do it easily after those few days.
Why is dental floss important?
Here, you may wonder why dental floss is important in the first place. Brushing cleans the front and back of the teeth but it doesn’t reach the sides of the teeth. Those sides are also called interdental spaces. When those sides are not cleaned, they can let the bacterial accumulation to consolidate in the place and cause tooth decay, cavities and gum disease. Flossing can clean those areas and reduce the risk of the said problems. While it is a straight forward process to floss your teeth, it becomes a challenge to do so when you have braces.
Cleaning under the wires
The first thing that you will have to do is to get the wire under the braces. You can do it by using a floss threader. This way, the floss thread will be in the root’s side of the tooth. You will need to insert the tread between every two teeth.
Another option you can go for is the floss pick. These picks come with a short section with two prongs that hold the thread. This prong is small enough to fit in the area between gum line and brace’s wire.
Flossing method
Getting thread under the wire is just half of what you need to do. Cleaning remains to be something you will need to work on in order to get your hands on the flossing with braces.
- The floss should be moved carefully between the teeth. You need to make a C-shape around the side of the tooth you are cleaning.
- The movement should be up-and-down pattern. Floss against a side of the tooth and then shift to the adjacent tooth.
- Make sure that you are cleaning the part of the tooth beneath the gum line. After cleaning that interdental area, slide the floss out of it.
Keeping the brackets clean
While flossing is extremely important and you do it regularly, you have to make sure that you are cleaning the brackets. For this purpose, you will need to use your toothbrush in the brackets. The bristles of toothbrush should be soft. Moreover, you need to change your toothbrush after every few months.